RinkWorks
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RinkWorks is a website whose features have been on the Internet in various incarnations since 1995; it premiered under the name "RinkWorks" in 1997, and was transferred to the domain rinkworks.com (http://www.rinkworks.com/) in 1998. It was created and is maintained by Samuel Stoddard, with significant contributions from David J. Parker.
RinkWorks is primarily an entertainment site, focusing on humor and games, mostly text-based. There is also a sizable section on movies.
Notable features in the "Humor" section include The Dialectizer, a tool that translates text or websites into a jocular "dialect" such as Redneck, Cockney, and Elmer Fudd; Book-A-Minute and Movie-A-Minute, which feature "ultra-condensed" versions of popular books and movies, typically in the format of a script; and Computer Stupidities and Things People Said, which feature user-submitted anecdotes of stupid, ignorant, or foolish things people have done or said (Computer Stupidities focuses on computer-related stupidities, while Things People Said is more general).
The "Games and Puzzles" section features some simple games such as Hangman and Rock, Paper, Scissors, both of which are featured in the "Classic Games" section. There is also a great number of text-based games; many are featured in a section called Adventure Games Live, which is powered by an engine created by Stoddard. There is also a game called the Site Market Game that resembles the stock market but is based on the number of hits a particular RinkWorks section might receive, and the Academy Awards Predictions Game wherein, once a year, players try to predict the nominees, and later the winners, for the major Academy Award categories. Also in the "Games and Puzzles" section are the official FAQs for Apogee Software and Everett Kaser Software.
The "Movies" section has only two features, but both are quite extensive. The first is At-A-Glance Film Reviews, which features (as of January 4, 2004) 3020 movies rated on a five-star scale, 2121 of which have accompanying reviews. The ratings and reviews are organized by decade, genre, artist, and quality, and are also searchable. The second feature is It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad Movie (run by Parker), which rates and reviews movies based on how terrible they are, and how much fun they are to watch because of it; the ratings system is based on a five-turkey scale.
There is also a "Hobbies" section, which features EquiWorks (a feature about model horse tack, run by Stoddard's wife Darleen) and Fun With Words (a feature about interesting words and quirks of the English language).
Finally, there is the section "Humor Bites", which has humor features that are essentially one-shot. Unlike the main "Humor" section, the individual features in "Humor Bites" are not updated periodically; once posted, they usually remain unchanged forever. Features of the "Humor Bites" section include The Filmmaker's Exam by Parker, which is a short quiz that lets you know whether or not the movie you intend to make should actually be carried out; Slapdash City, a satire of personal home pages, especially those on GeoCities; and the three "How To Be" sections: How To Be Funny, How To Be Romantic, and How To Be Persuasive.
RinkWorks also features a community section for the readers to converse and discuss, whether about the site or any other topic that comes to mind. These include a message forum and a chat room, the latter of which is currently powered by an engine called RookChat, created by Stoddard and currently available for download. Besides the usual banter expected in a chat room or message forum, there is frequent discussion of movies and politics, usually but not always with a humorous take.
There is also a site journal where Stoddard occasionally shares his thoughts.
Stoddard works frequently on the site, with several updates a month, whether major or minor, and sometimes introducing new features as well. The site remains popular, both with long-time devotees who frequent the message forum and chat room for several years, and with people "just stopping by" to read a humor bite or play a game. RinkWorks typically ranks somewhere in the twenty-thousands in the traffic rank on Alexa (as of May 18 2004, its three-month average traffic rank is 29,798).
On May 17, 2004, RinkWorks introduced a subscription service. RinkWorks subscribers see no pop-up ads or banner ads on the site. Additionally, each page a subscriber sees has a navigational toolbar. They also have access to a few subscriber-only features, including the RinkWorks Museum.
RinkWorks has also invented a new holiday, called "Stupid Day." Held on January 21, the day is a tribute to stupidity in all forms. Stupid Day can be celebrated in any way that involves stupidity in some form.
See also
External links
- RinkWorks.com (http://www.rinkworks.com/) - the main page.
- Site Guide (http://www.rinkworks.com/guide/) - an annotated guide to all the features and sections of the site.